Solar PV strategy will be finalised in the ‘coming weeks’

The Solar PV Strategy will help take the technology to the 'next level' according to Greg Barker. Image credit: Mountain Ash

The UK solar industry may only have to wait a matter of weeks before government publishes its first ever solar PV strategy.

Addressing delegates at the Large Scale Solar Conference, the minister for energy and climate change, Greg Barker, said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change would be finalising the solar PV strategy “over the coming weeks”.

Barker said that the strategy would set out in detail how the government and the private sector can work together to “capitalise on the sector’s growth” to take solar to the “next level”.

The strategy will mark the next step of political support for the UK solar industry after solar PV was named as a "key technology" in the updated renewables roadmap in December.

The minister also hailed the role that the newly created Solar PV Strategy Group will play in the development of the UK solar industry, adding: “As the sector grows, we need to balance the huge opportunities with responsible growth. As a key part of our work on a solar strategy, we will work, in association with the sector, on how we can ensure that large-scale solar deployment is truly sustainable, what criteria the sector should follow, how they can be most effectively implemented – and enforced. That way, we can achieve our twin aims of growth of solar PV and protection of our rural environment.

“The Solar PV Strategy Group brings together industry and government to ensure that we work effectively to address the challenges facing the sector over the coming years.”

Barker concluded: “You are the businesses who can continue to develop our expertise in solar technology. To use this technology to cut costs, compete internationally and boost jobs. You are the experts who can help us build the future of this industry through the new Solar PV Strategy Group which will help to inform our new solar strategy.

“It is right that we should be putting solar PV at the heart of our green energy policy. And I want us to continue to work together – government and industry – because this is a shared endeavour.”

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